Waitakere United’s Scott Hilliar found the back of the net in the 87th minute to hold Southern to a 2-2 draw at Fred Taylor Park in Auckland.
The result sees Southern take its first league point of the season and it was happy to do so against a Waitakere team that entered the weekend as joint leaders on the table.
"It was a point gained, something that we haven’t got out of the last two games," Southern United assistant coach Terry Boylan said.
"We executed the game plan well and we were unlucky not to come away with the three, to be honest."
It was a good day to be Irish, so it was lucky Southern had four players from the country on the field. One of those four, Danny Ledwith, buried a penalty in the 30th minute after being brought down in the box by Ian Hogg. That tied the score after Jake Butler had given Waitakere a lead 12 minutes earlier. Southern took the lead in the 71st minute as Waitakere’s David Parkinson deflected the ball into his own goal while covering a cross from another Irishman, Andy Mulligan. From there, Waitakere went on the attack and had Southern under the pump, which eventually told with the equalising goal to Hilliar.
"Waitakere played really well as well. They gave it to us in the last 10-15 minutes and they had us under the cosh.
"We tried to weather the storm and we didn’t really weather the storm well. It’s just one of those things about winning a game of football and trying to shut out the game. But full credit to them, they deserved their point as well."
Line-up changes saw Tennessee Kinghorn, Cam McPhail and Chris Kessell given their chance and all delivered strong performances. But that was part of an top effort overall from the team.
"All over the park, everyone did really well. They worked their socks off; you couldn’t ask any more of them."
The side was happy with the result as it prepared for a big clash against Auckland City in Invercargill next week.
"It’s a good feeling; it’s a point on the board, that’s what we’ve been after.
"You start to feel that things aren’t going your way. Today we learnt a lesson, trying to figure out how to shut out games. It could have been three, but we’re happy with one."
In other results, Tasman United and Wellington Phoenix under-20 drew 1-1, while Team Wellington claimed its first points of the season with a 4-2 win over Hawke’s Bay United. Hamilton Wanderers claimed a 4-0 win over Eastern Suburbs and Canterbury United held Auckland City to a 0-0 draw.
